Freshwater

Author:   Akwaeke Emezi
Publisher:   Black Cat
ISBN:  

9780802127358


Pages:   240
Publication Date:   13 February 2018
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   In stock   Availability explained
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Freshwater


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Overview

A National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 HonoreeFinalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award for a Debut Novel Shortlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize A New York Times Notable Book The astonishing debut novel from the acclaimed bestselling author of The Death of Vivek Oji, You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty, and Pet, Freshwater tells the story of Ada, an unusual child who is a source of deep concern to her southern Nigerian family. Young Ada is troubled, prone to violent fits. Born with one foot on the other side, she begins to develop separate selves within her as she grows into adulthood. And when she travels to America for college, a traumatic event on campus crystallizes the selves into something powerful and potentially dangerous, making Ada fade into the background of her own mind as these alters--now protective, now hedonistic--move into control. Written with stylistic brilliance and based in the author's realities, Freshwater dazzles with ferocious energy and serpentine grace.

Full Product Details

Author:   Akwaeke Emezi
Publisher:   Black Cat
Imprint:   Black Cat
Dimensions:   Width: 14.50cm , Height: 2.50cm , Length: 21.10cm
Weight:   0.363kg
ISBN:  

9780802127358


ISBN 10:   0802127355
Pages:   240
Publication Date:   13 February 2018
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In stock   Availability explained
We have confirmation that this item is in stock with the supplier. It will be ordered in for you and dispatched immediately.

Table of Contents

Reviews

Advance Praise for Freshwater In Emezi's remarkable debut novel, Freshwater, we enter the lives of our protagonist, starting in Nigeria and ending in the United States. Every page is imbued with radiant prose, and a chorus of poetic voices. With a plot as alive and urgent as it is relatable, Freshwater is also solidly its own, brims with its unique preoccupations. Never before have I read a novel like it--one that speaks to the unification and separation of bodies and souls, the powers or lack thereof of gods and humans, and the long and arduous journey to claiming our many selves, or to setting our many selves free. --Chinelo Okparanta, author of Under The Udala Trees Freshwater is one of those dazzling novels that defies these kinds of descriptions. We can gesture to the story--set in Nigeria and America, told by all the selves of its Tamil/Igbo protagonist--but such synthesis fails to convey the magic that awaits its reader. At once fiction and memoir, potent in its spiritual richness and sexual frankness, the text seems not to have been written by but channeled through its brilliant author. This may be Emezi's debut novel but she is an old--an ancient--storyteller: thrillingly at home in the tradition of griots, poets, seers and seekers. --Taiye Selasi, author of Ghana Must Go With this stunning debut, Akwaeke Emezi has blessed us with nothing less than a masterpiece. Freshwater is a journey of loss and reconciliation, home and heartbreak, and ultimately a survivor's guide to harmonizing spirit and flesh. Quite simply a gorgeous, elegant, and brutal work of truthtelling. To repeat: A masterpiece. --Daniel Jose Older, New York Times bestselling author of The Shadowshaper Cypher Wow. The net effect is a feeling of being peeled open, and quickly finding that skinless place to be normal. More than any novel I can remember, it feels utterly present to the place we are in the world. --Binyavanga Wainaina, author of One Day I Will Write About This Place


Advance Praise for Freshwater In Emezi's remarkable debut novel, Freshwater, we enter the lives of our protagonist, starting in Nigeria and ending in the United States. Every page is imbued with radiant prose, and a chorus of poetic voices. With a plot as alive and urgent as it is relatable, Freshwater is also solidly its own, brims with its unique preoccupations. Never before have I read a novel like it--one that speaks to the unification and separation of bodies and souls, the powers or lack thereof of gods and humans, and the long and arduous journey to claiming our many selves, or to setting our many selves free. --Chinelo Okparanta, author of Under The Udala Trees Freshwater is one of those dazzling novels that defies these kinds of descriptions. We can gesture to the story--set in Nigeria and America, told by all the selves of its Tamil/Igbo protagonist--but such synthesis fails to convey the magic that awaits its reader. At once fiction and memoir, potent in its spiritual richness and sexual frankness, the text seems not to have been written by but channeled through its brilliant author. This may be Emezi's debut novel but she is an old--an ancient--storyteller: thrillingly at home in the tradition of griots, poets, seers and seekers. --Taiye Selasi, author of Ghana Must Go With this stunning debut, Akwaeke Emezi has blessed us with nothing less than a masterpiece. Freshwater is a journey of loss and reconciliation, home and heartbreak, and ultimately a survivor's guide to harmonizing spirit and flesh. Quite simply a gorgeous, elegant, and brutal work of truthtelling. To repeat: A masterpiece. --Daniel Jose Older, New York Times bestselling author of The Shadowshaper Cypher series Wow. The net effect is a feeling of being peeled open, and quickly finding that skinless place to be normal. More than any novel I can remember, it feels utterly present to the place we are in the world. --Binyavanga Wainaina, author of One Day I Will Write About This Place Akwaeke Emezi is a major, exhilarating talent. --NoViolet Bulawayo, Booker-shortlisted author of We Need New Names What if we were not one person, but three in one body--created by careless gods who forgot to 'close the gate'? Akwaeke Emezi's novel, Freshwater, paints a fiercely unique, unforgettable story of identity, mental health and the world beyond ours. This impressive debut is lyrical and well-told. --Tananarive Due, author of Ghost Summer


Praise for Freshwater An Indie Next Selection Named One of the Best Books to Read This Winter by Elle Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2018 by Esquire, the Huffington Post, Electric Lit, the Millions, Bitch, The Rumpus, Bustle, Shondaland, the Toronto Star, and Book Riot A witchy, electrifying story of danger and compulsion . . . Freshwater recounts the 'litany of madness' suffered by Ada in a serpentine prose that proceeds by oblique, hypnotizing movements before it sinks its fangs into you . . . As striking and mysterious as the ways of the gods who narrate it . . . The latest standout in this exciting boom in the Nigerian novel. --Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal The novel is based in many of the realities of the writer's life, but the prose is infused with imaginative lyricism and tone . . . The journey undertaken in the novel is swirling and vivid, vicious and painful, and rendered by Emezi in [sharp and glittering] shards . . . Emezi's lyrical writing, her alliterative and symmetrical prose, explores the deep questions of otherness, of a single heart and soul hovering between, the gates open, fighting for peace. --Susan Straight, Los Angeles Times A startling debut novel explores the freedom of being multiple . . . Igbo spirituality, Emezi radically suggests, has as much to offer as any [Western] schemas when it comes to decrypting human folly or transcendence . . . The book would have made grim sense through a mental-health lens; instead, it is an indigenous fairy tale . . . The book becomes a study in dysphoria--not precisely the distress of being misgendered but the more nebulous pain of being imprisoned in a physical form, of losing your wraith-like ability to evade categorization . . . There is something self-defeating about trying to trace a self that is defined by indefinability; one achievement of Emezi's book is to make that paradox feel generously fertile. --Katy Waldman, New Yorker Remarkable and daring . . . Poetic and disturbing . . . Rooting Ada's story in Igbo cosmology forces us to further question our paradigm for what causes mental illness and how it manifests. It causes us to question science and reason. --Tariro Mzezewa, New York Times Akwaeke Emezi is a name you will want to remember, because surely it is one you will be hearing again and again . . . A stunning and disorienting story about a broken woman trying to overcome the pain of her human life while straddling 'the other side' . . . Freshwater is unlike any novel I have ever read. Its shape-shifting perspective is radical and innovative, twisting the narrative voices like the bones of a python . . . Emezi has not only made a rich contribution to Igbo mythology, she has crafted a novel so unique and fresh, it feels as if the medium has been reinvented. --Safa Jinje, Toronto Star Akwaeke Emezi's bewitching and heart-rending Freshwater is a coming-of-age novel like no other . . . For anyone who has experienced life as a misfit or outcast, this is a resonant rendition . . . For all its sheer invention, Freshwater feels more like an interpretive journey through uncharted territory with an experienced guide. Potent and moving, knowing and strange, this is a powerful and irresistibly unsettling debut. --David Wright, Seattle Times Ambitious . . . The novel cunningly uses African traditions in order to show that they include ideas about gender, sexual orientation, and mental illness that are often presumed to be Western imports. --New Yorker Nigerian-born author Emezi presents an emotionally charged debut with her novel, Freshwater . . . Emezi's prose is vibrant and terrifying; she portrays Ada's tribulations with breathtaking detail. Freshwater is a novel of unforgiving spirituality told in a manner that is sophisticated, precise and elegant. --IndiePicks Magazine Freshwater is sheer perfection: sexy, sensual, spiritual, wise. One of the most dazzling debuts I've ever read. --Taiye Selasi, Guardian Akwaeke Emezi parts the seas of the self in her engrossing debut novel, Freshwater. --Sloane Crosley, Vanity Fair Part magical realism, part meditation on mental illness . . . Ada's struggle provides a thought-provoking and visceral exploration of life with an altered state of mind. --Harper's Bazaar Harrowing yet beautiful . . . Racing through [Freshwater] felt disrespectful--To the gods? To Emezi? To literature itself?--for [it] is the kind of novel that deserves, no, demands immersion and focus. Every sentence left me reeling, every paragraph on the edge of my seat, and every chapter begging for more. I could've spent hundreds of pages more in Emezi's lush creation . . . For a debut novelist, Akwaeke Emezi has successfully pulled off what many longtime writers only dream of doing. It's an astonishing, haunting, stunning piece of work. --Tor.com Ambitious and original . . . Befitting a story about a fractured mind, the style of the novel is unconventional. Not only does Emezi write in multiple voices, but the story also progresses in a nonlinear fashion . . . Brilliant. --Zyzzyva Emezi's tale of Ada's journey is astonishing. --Jane Ciabattari, BBC Powerful . . . readers are sure to hold their breath. --Bustle [A] stunningly poetic debut. Emezi's deconstruction of identity is gripping, her approach to sensitive subjects deeply moving. --Entertainment Weekly Far surpasses your average edgy coming-of-age novel . . . A gripping read that deftly achieves what many postmodern books strive for--a discussion and interrogation of the fractured self--in a way that puts its contemporaries to shame. It is clearer, faster, more intimate, and more inventive than many other topically comparative books . . . A remarkable take on human interiority. --Riveter Freshwater is the first novel from Akwaeke Emezi, marking the beginning of what will surely be a long, storied career. Strikingly original and impossible to put down, it tracks the life of a Nigerian woman--from birth through to her adulthood unraveling--and will leave you breathless by the very end. --PopSugar Akwaeke Emezi's debut Freshwater is a completely unique novel that explores the fragmented selves of a Nigerian woman named Ada. Narrated from multiple perspectives, Freshwater is a dynamic encounter with selfhood, mental illness and the complex experience of being. --Culture Trip (UK) Emezi's powerful and poetic debut deftly mines the complicated world of mental illness. --Business Insider Emezi has established herself as a young writer to watch with an engrossing tale of identity, mental illness and spirituality . . . Emezi's careful structuring and poetic language provides a pleasing balance to keep us stabilized as we reach toward high planes. Reading Freshwater, then, is akin to letting oneself over to a luminous experience; we are enveloped fully from page one, and leave the novel feeling transformed. --Iowa Gazette Lyrical and dazzling . . . an intimate, spiritual, and haunting story; one that feels both unique and relatable in its exploration of identity, coming of age, and living with trauma and mental illness. A stunning, genre-bending debut novel from a brilliant new writer--reading Freshwater is a transportive, otherworldly experience. --Shondaland In her mind-blowing debut, Emezi weaves traditional Igbo myth that turns the well-worn narrative of mental illness on its head, and in doing so she has ensured a place on the literary-fiction landscape as a writer to watch . . . Emezi's brilliance lies not just in her expert handling of the conflicting voices in Ada's head but in delivering an entirely different perspective on just what it means to go slowly mad. Complex and dark, this novel will simultaneously challenge and reward lovers of literary fiction. A must-read. --Booklist (starred review) [A] spiritually lush and tough yet lyrical debut . . . A gorgeous, unsettling look into the human psyche, richly conceived yet accessible to all. --Library Journal (starred review) [An] enthralling, metaphysical debut novel . . . Emezi's talent is undeniable. She brilliantly depicts the conflict raging in the 'marble room' of Ada's psyche, resulting in an impressive debut. --Publishers Weekly [A] haunting yet stunning exploration of mental illness grounded in traditional Nigerian spirituality . . . Employing precise and poetic yet accessible prose, Emezi brilliantly crafts distinct voices for each of Ada's selves and puts them in conversation with each other . . . She balances multiple lands, ethnicities, perspectives and belief systems with the ease of a writer far beyond her age and experience. Freshwater is a brutally beautiful rumination on consciousnesses and belief and a refreshing contribution to our literary landscape. --BookPage Akwaeke Emezi's standout first novel, Freshwater, is a riveting and peculiar variation on coming of age . . . The poetics of Emezi's prose enhance the mythology she evokes. As enchanting as it is unsettling, Freshwater tickles all six senses. The chorus of voices narrating Ada's life achieves a remarkable balance between cruel machinations of cavalier deities and deep empathy for the distressed vessel they inhabit . . . dazzling. --Shelf Awareness In Emezi's remarkable debut novel, Freshwater, we enter the lives of our protagonist, starting in Nigeria and ending in the United States. Every page is imbued with radiant prose, and a chorus of poetic voices. With a plot as alive and urgent as it is relatable, Freshwater is also solidly its own, brims with its unique preoccupations. Never before have I read a novel like it--one that speaks to the unification and separation of bodies and souls, the powers or lack thereof of gods and humans, and the long and arduous journey to claiming our many selves, or to setting our many selves free. --Chinelo Okparanta, author of Under The Udala Trees With this stunning debut, Akwaeke Emezi has blessed us with nothing less than a masterpiece. Freshwater is a journey of loss and reconciliation, home and heartbreak, and ultimately a survivor's guide to harmonizing spirit and flesh. Quite simply a gorgeous, elegant, and brutal work of truthtelling. To repeat: A masterpiece. --Daniel Jose Older, New York Times bestselling author of The Shadowshaper Cypher series Wow. The net effect is a feeling of being peeled open, and quickly finding that skinless place to be normal. More than any novel I can remember, it feels utterly present to the place we are in the world. --Binyavanga Wainaina, author of One Day I Will Write About This Place Akwaeke Emezi is a major, exhilarating talent. --NoViolet Bulawayo, Booker-shortlisted author of We Need New Names What if we were not one person, but three in one body--created by careless gods who forgot to 'close the gate'? Akwaeke Emezi's novel, Freshwater, paints a fiercely unique, unforgettable story of identity, mental health and the world beyond ours. This impressive debut is lyrical and well-told. --Tananarive Due, author of Ghost Summer A clarion call to those of us who find that our minds are more haunted and complex than that of the status quo. In exquisite, unearthly prose, Akwaeke Emezi renders the ordinary strange and the strange, ordinary--making Freshwater the most stunning debut novel I've read in years. An unforgettable literary experience. --Esme Weijun Wang, author of The Border of Paradise Freshwater is one of those dazzling novels that defies these kinds of descriptions. We can gesture to the story--set in Nigeria and America, told by all the selves of its Tamil/Igbo protagonist--but such synthesis fails to convey the magic that awaits its reader. At once fiction and memoir, potent in its spiritual richness and sexual frankness, the text seems not to have been written by but channeled through its brilliant author. This may be Emezi's debut novel but she is an old--an ancient--storyteller: thrillingly at home in the tradition of griots, poets, seers and seekers. --Taiye Selasi, author of Ghana Must Go


Praise for Freshwater A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice An Indies Introduce Title An Amazon Top 10 Book Pick (February 2018) Named One of the Best Books to Read This Winter by Elle Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2018 by Esquire, the Huffington Post, Electric Lit, the Millions, Bitch, The Rumpus, Bustle, Shondaland, the Toronto Star, and Book Riot A witchy, electrifying story of danger and compulsion . . . Freshwater recounts the 'litany of madness' suffered by Ada in a serpentine prose that proceeds by oblique, hypnotizing movements before it sinks its fangs into you . . . As striking and mysterious as the ways of the gods who narrate it . . . The latest standout in this exciting boom in the Nigerian novel. --Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal The novel is based in many of the realities of the writer's life, but the prose is infused with imaginative lyricism and tone . . . The journey undertaken in the novel is swirling and vivid, vicious and painful, and rendered by Emezi in [sharp and glittering] shards . . . Emezi's lyrical writing, her alliterative and symmetrical prose, explores the deep questions of otherness, of a single heart and soul hovering between, the gates open, fighting for peace. --Susan Straight, Los Angeles Times A startling debut novel explores the freedom of being multiple . . . Igbo spirituality, Emezi radically suggests, has as much to offer as any [Western] schemas when it comes to decrypting human folly or transcendence . . . The book would have made grim sense through a mental-health lens; instead, it is an indigenous fairy tale . . . The book becomes a study in dysphoria--not precisely the distress of being misgendered but the more nebulous pain of being imprisoned in a physical form, of losing your wraith-like ability to evade categorization . . . There is something self-defeating about trying to trace a self that is defined by indefinability; one achievement of Emezi's book is to make that paradox feel generously fertile. --Katy Waldman, New Yorker Remarkable and daring . . . Poetic and disturbing . . . Rooting Ada's story in Igbo cosmology forces us to further question our paradigm for what causes mental illness and how it manifests. It causes us to question science and reason. --Tariro Mzezewa, New York Times Akwaeke Emezi is a name you will want to remember, because surely it is one you will be hearing again and again . . . A stunning and disorienting story about a broken woman trying to overcome the pain of her human life while straddling 'the other side' . . . Freshwater is unlike any novel I have ever read. Its shape-shifting perspective is radical and innovative, twisting the narrative voices like the bones of a python . . . Emezi has not only made a rich contribution to Igbo mythology, she has crafted a novel so unique and fresh, it feels as if the medium has been reinvented. --Safa Jinje, Toronto Star Akwaeke Emezi's bewitching and heart-rending Freshwater is a coming-of-age novel like no other . . . For anyone who has experienced life as a misfit or outcast, this is a resonant rendition . . . For all its sheer invention, Freshwater feels more like an interpretive journey through uncharted territory with an experienced guide. Potent and moving, knowing and strange, this is a powerful and irresistibly unsettling debut. --David Wright, Seattle Times A new kind of bildungsroman . . . Probably better called a work of autofiction . . . Freshwater reimagines the genre of psychological self-portrait. Ada suffers the slings and arrows of mental torture more than the average protagonist. She finds a kind of peace, however, in identifying her conflicting and compartmentalized selfhoods as ogbanje . . . The ogbanje are so useful precisely because they offer an alternative to metaphor, an alternative to literary device--they bring the marvelous and the near-imaginary to the realm of autofiction. --Josephine Livingstone, New Republic Nigerian-born author Emezi presents an emotionally charged debut with her novel, Freshwater . . . Emezi's prose is vibrant and terrifying; she portrays Ada's tribulations with breathtaking detail. Freshwater is a novel of unforgiving spirituality told in a manner that is sophisticated, precise and elegant. --IndiePicks Magazine Freshwater is sheer perfection: sexy, sensual, spiritual, wise. One of the most dazzling debuts I've ever read. --Taiye Selasi, Guardian Akwaeke Emezi parts the seas of the self in her engrossing debut novel, Freshwater. --Sloane Crosley, Vanity Fair Part magical realism, part meditation on mental illness . . . Ada's struggle provides a thought-provoking and visceral exploration of life with an altered state of mind. --Harper's Bazaar Harrowing yet beautiful . . . Racing through [Freshwater] felt disrespectful--To the gods? To Emezi? To literature itself?--for [it] is the kind of novel that deserves, no, demands immersion and focus. Every sentence left me reeling, every paragraph on the edge of my seat, and every chapter begging for more. I could've spent hundreds of pages more in Emezi's lush creation . . . For a debut novelist, Akwaeke Emezi has successfully pulled off what many longtime writers only dream of doing. It's an astonishing, haunting, stunning piece of work. --Tor.com Ambitious and original . . . Befitting a story about a fractured mind, the style of the novel is unconventional. Not only does Emezi write in multiple voices, but the story also progresses in a nonlinear fashion . . . Brilliant. --Zyzzyva Emezi's tale of Ada's journey is astonishing. --Jane Ciabattari, BBC Powerful . . . readers are sure to hold their breath. --Bustle [A] stunningly poetic debut. Emezi's deconstruction of identity is gripping, her approach to sensitive subjects deeply moving. --Entertainment Weekly Far surpasses your average edgy coming-of-age novel . . . A gripping read that deftly achieves what many postmodern books strive for--a discussion and interrogation of the fractured self--in a way that puts its contemporaries to shame. It is clearer, faster, more intimate, and more inventive than many other topically comparative books . . . A remarkable take on human interiority. --Riveter Freshwater is the first novel from Akwaeke Emezi, marking the beginning of what will surely be a long, storied career. Strikingly original and impossible to put down, it tracks the life of a Nigerian woman--from birth through to her adulthood unraveling--and will leave you breathless by the very end. --PopSugar Akwaeke Emezi's debut Freshwater is a completely unique novel that explores the fragmented selves of a Nigerian woman named Ada. Narrated from multiple perspectives, Freshwater is a dynamic encounter with selfhood, mental illness and the complex experience of being. --Culture Trip (UK) Emezi's powerful and poetic debut deftly mines the complicated world of mental illness. --Business Insider Emezi has established herself as a young writer to watch with an engrossing tale of identity, mental illness and spirituality . . . Emezi's careful structuring and poetic language provides a pleasing balance to keep us stabilized as we reach toward high planes. Reading Freshwater, then, is akin to letting oneself over to a luminous experience; we are enveloped fully from page one, and leave the novel feeling transformed. --Iowa Gazette Lyrical and dazzling . . . an intimate, spiritual, and haunting story; one that feels both unique and relatable in its exploration of identity, coming of age, and living with trauma and mental illness. A stunning, genre-bending debut novel from a brilliant new writer--reading Freshwater is a transportive, otherworldly experience. --Shondaland In her mind-blowing debut, Emezi weaves traditional Igbo myth that turns the well-worn narrative of mental illness on its head, and in doing so she has ensured a place on the literary-fiction landscape as a writer to watch . . . Emezi's brilliance lies not just in her expert handling of the conflicting voices in Ada's head but in delivering an entirely different perspective on just what it means to go slowly mad. Complex and dark, this novel will simultaneously challenge and reward lovers of literary fiction. A must-read. --Booklist (starred review) [A] spiritually lush and tough yet lyrical debut . . . A gorgeous, unsettling look into the human psyche, richly conceived yet accessible to all. --Library Journal (starred review) [An] enthralling, metaphysical debut novel . . . Emezi's talent is undeniable. She brilliantly depicts the conflict raging in the 'marble room' of Ada's psyche, resulting in an impressive debut. --Publishers Weekly [A] haunting yet stunning exploration of mental illness grounded in traditional Nigerian spirituality . . . Employing precise and poetic yet accessible prose, Emezi brilliantly crafts distinct voices for each of Ada's selves and puts them in conversation with each other . . . She balances multiple lands, ethnicities, perspectives and belief systems with the ease of a writer far beyond her age and experience. Freshwater is a brutally beautiful rumination on consciousnesses and belief and a refreshing contribution to our literary landscape. --BookPage Akwaeke Emezi's standout first novel, Freshwater, is a riveting and peculiar variation on coming of age . . . The poetics of Emezi's prose enhance the mythology she evokes. As enchanting as it is unsettling, Freshwater tickles all six senses. The chorus of voices narrating Ada's life achieves a remarkable balance between cruel machinations of cavalier deities and deep empathy for the distressed vessel they inhabit . . . dazzling. --Shelf Awareness Akwaeke Emezi's debut, Freshwater, is this silk, a slim novel so rooted in its lineage and yet so bright, putting thoughts together in new ways, crafting a devastating and exuberant work. One almost cannot believe that Emezi is using the words we are used to using, because she transmutes them into a story that, while accessible and often relatable, is entirely its own. She breathes new dimensions into language and story. You would be hard-pressed to find a reader, any reader, who could complete this book and fail to call it a masterpiece. --Book Reporter In Emezi's remarkable debut novel, Freshwater, we enter the lives of our protagonist, starting in Nigeria and ending in the United States. Every page is imbued with radiant prose, and a chorus of poetic voices. With a plot as alive and urgent as it is relatable, Freshwater is also solidly its own, brims with its unique preoccupations. Never before have I read a novel like it--one that speaks to the unification and separation of bodies and souls, the powers or lack thereof of gods and humans, and the long and arduous journey to claiming our many selves, or to setting our many selves free. --Chinelo Okparanta, author of Under The Udala Trees With this stunning debut, Akwaeke Emezi has blessed us with nothing less than a masterpiece. Freshwater is a journey of loss and reconciliation, home and heartbreak, and ultimately a survivor's guide to harmonizing spirit and flesh. Quite simply a gorgeous, elegant, and brutal work of truthtelling. To repeat: A masterpiece. --Daniel Jos� Older, New York Times bestselling author of The Shadowshaper Cypher series Wow. The net effect is a feeling of being peeled open, and quickly finding that skinless place to be normal. More than any novel I can remember, it feels utterly present to the place we are in the world. --Binyavanga Wainaina, author of One Day I Will Write About This Place Akwaeke Emezi is a major, exhilarating talent. --NoViolet Bulawayo, Booker-shortlisted author of We Need New Names What if we were not one person, but three in one body--created by careless gods who forgot to 'close the gate'? Akwaeke Emezi's novel, Freshwater, paints a fiercely unique, unforgettable story of identity, mental health and the world beyond ours. This impressive debut is lyrical and well-told. --Tananarive Due, author of Ghost Summer A clarion call to those of us who find that our minds are more haunted and complex than that of the status quo. In exquisite, unearthly prose, Akwaeke Emezi renders the ordinary strange and the strange, ordinary--making Freshwater the most stunning debut novel I've read in years. An unforgettable literary experience. --Esm� Weijun Wang, author of The Border of Paradise Freshwater is one of those dazzling novels that defies these kinds of descriptions. We can gesture to the story--set in Nigeria and America, told by all the selves of its Tamil/Igbo protagonist--but such synthesis fails to convey the magic that awaits its reader. At once fiction and memoir, potent in its spiritual richness and sexual frankness, the text seems not to have been written by but channeled through its brilliant author. This may be Emezi's debut novel but she is an old--an ancient--storyteller: thrillingly at home in the tradition of griots, poets, seers and seekers. --Taiye Selasi, author of Ghana Must Go


Advance Praise for Freshwater An Indie Next Selection Named One of the Best Books to Read This Winter by Elle Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2018 by Esquire, the Huffington Post, Electric Lit, the Millions, Bitch, The Rumpus, Bustle, Shondaland, the Toronto Star, and Book Riot Nigerian-born author Emezi presents an emotionally charged debut with her novel, Freshwater . . . Emezi's prose is vibrant and terrifying; she portrays Ada's tribulations with breathtaking detail. Freshwater is a novel of unforgiving spirituality told in a manner that is sophisticated, precise and elegant. --IndiePicks Magazine Freshwater is sheer perfection: sexy, sensual, spiritual, wise. One of the most dazzling debuts I've ever read. --Taiye Selasi, Guardian Emezi has established herself as a young writer to watch with an engrossing tale of identity, mental illness and spirituality . . . Emezi's careful structuring and poetic language provides a pleasing balance to keep us stabilized as we reach toward high planes. Reading Freshwater, then, is akin to letting oneself over to a luminous experience; we are enveloped fully from page one, and leave the novel feeling transformed. --Iowa Gazette Lyrical and dazzling . . . an intimate, spiritual, and haunting story; one that feels both unique and relatable in its exploration of identity, coming of age, and living with trauma and mental illness. A stunning, genre-bending debut novel from a brilliant new writer--reading Freshwater is a transportive, otherworldly experience. --Shondaland In her mind-blowing debut, Emezi weaves traditional Igbo myth that turns the well-worn narrative of mental illness on its head, and in doing so she has ensured a place on the literary-fiction landscape as a writer to watch . . . Emezi's brilliance lies not just in her expert handling of the conflicting voices in Ada's head but in delivering an entirely different perspective on just what it means to go slowly mad. Complex and dark, this novel will simultaneously challenge and reward lovers of literary fiction. A must-read. --Booklist (starred review) [A] spiritually lush and tough yet lyrical debut . . . A gorgeous, unsettling look into the human psyche, richly conceived yet accessible to all. --Library Journal (starred review) [An] enthralling, metaphysical debut novel . . . Emezi's talent is undeniable. She brilliantly depicts the conflict raging in the 'marble room' of Ada's psyche, resulting in an impressive debut. --Publishers Weekly [A] haunting yet stunning exploration of mental illness grounded in traditional Nigerian spirituality . . . Employing precise and poetic yet accessible prose, Emezi brilliantly crafts distinct voices for each of Ada's selves and puts them in conversation with each other . . . She balances multiple lands, ethnicities, perspectives and belief systems with the ease of a writer far beyond her age and experience. Freshwater is a brutally beautiful rumination on consciousnesses and belief and a refreshing contribution to our literary landscape. --BookPage Akwaeke Emezi's standout first novel, Freshwater, is a riveting and peculiar variation on coming of age . . . The poetics of Emezi's prose enhance the mythology she evokes. As enchanting as it is unsettling, Freshwater tickles all six senses. The chorus of voices narrating Ada's life achieves a remarkable balance between cruel machinations of cavalier deities and deep empathy for the distressed vessel they inhabit . . . dazzling. --Shelf Awareness In Emezi's remarkable debut novel, Freshwater, we enter the lives of our protagonist, starting in Nigeria and ending in the United States. Every page is imbued with radiant prose, and a chorus of poetic voices. With a plot as alive and urgent as it is relatable, Freshwater is also solidly its own, brims with its unique preoccupations. Never before have I read a novel like it--one that speaks to the unification and separation of bodies and souls, the powers or lack thereof of gods and humans, and the long and arduous journey to claiming our many selves, or to setting our many selves free. --Chinelo Okparanta, author of Under The Udala Trees With this stunning debut, Akwaeke Emezi has blessed us with nothing less than a masterpiece. Freshwater is a journey of loss and reconciliation, home and heartbreak, and ultimately a survivor's guide to harmonizing spirit and flesh. Quite simply a gorgeous, elegant, and brutal work of truthtelling. To repeat: A masterpiece. --Daniel Jose Older, New York Times bestselling author of The Shadowshaper Cypher series Wow. The net effect is a feeling of being peeled open, and quickly finding that skinless place to be normal. More than any novel I can remember, it feels utterly present to the place we are in the world. --Binyavanga Wainaina, author of One Day I Will Write About This Place Akwaeke Emezi is a major, exhilarating talent. --NoViolet Bulawayo, Booker-shortlisted author of We Need New Names What if we were not one person, but three in one body--created by careless gods who forgot to 'close the gate'? Akwaeke Emezi's novel, Freshwater, paints a fiercely unique, unforgettable story of identity, mental health and the world beyond ours. This impressive debut is lyrical and well-told. --Tananarive Due, author of Ghost Summer A clarion call to those of us who find that our minds are more haunted and complex than that of the status quo. In exquisite, unearthly prose, Akwaeke Emezi renders the ordinary strange and the strange, ordinary--making Freshwater the most stunning debut novel I've read in years. An unforgettable literary experience. --Esme Weijun Wang, author of The Border of Paradise Freshwater is one of those dazzling novels that defies these kinds of descriptions. We can gesture to the story--set in Nigeria and America, told by all the selves of its Tamil/Igbo protagonist--but such synthesis fails to convey the magic that awaits its reader. At once fiction and memoir, potent in its spiritual richness and sexual frankness, the text seems not to have been written by but channeled through its brilliant author. This may be Emezi's debut novel but she is an old--an ancient--storyteller: thrillingly at home in the tradition of griots, poets, seers and seekers. --Taiye Selasi, author of Ghana Must Go Advance Praise for Freshwater Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2018 by Book Riot In her mind-blowing debut, Emezi weaves traditional Igbo myth that turns the well-worn narrative of mental illness on its head, and in doing so she has ensured a place on the literary-fiction landscape as a writer to watch . . . Emezi's brilliance lies not just in her expert handling of the conflicting voices in Ada's head but in delivering an entirely different perspective on just what it means to go slowly mad. Complex and dark, this novel will simultaneously challenge and reward lovers of literary fiction. A must-read. --Booklist (starred review) [A] spiritually lush and tough yet lyrical debut . . . A gorgeous, unsettling look into the human psyche, richly conceived yet accessible to all. --Library Journal (starred review) [An] enthralling, metaphysical debut novel . . . Emezi's talent is undeniable. She brilliantly depicts the conflict raging in the 'marble room' of Ada's psyche, resulting in an impressive debut. --Publishers Weekly Freshwater is sheer perfection: sexy, sensual, spiritual, wise. One of the most dazzling debuts I've ever read. --Taiye Selasi, Guardian Nigerian-born author Emezi presents an emotionally charged debut with her novel, Freshwater . . . Emezi's prose is vibrant and terrifying; she portrays Ada's tribulations with breathtaking detail. Freshwater is a novel of unforgiving spirituality told in a manner that is sophisticated, precise and elegant. --IndiePicks Magazine In Emezi's remarkable debut novel, Freshwater, we enter the lives of our protagonist, starting in Nigeria and ending in the United States. Every page is imbued with radiant prose, and a chorus of poetic voices. With a plot as alive and urgent as it is relatable, Freshwater is also solidly its own, brims with its unique preoccupations. Never before have I read a novel like it--one that speaks to the unification and separation of bodies and souls, the powers or lack thereof of gods and humans, and the long and arduous journey to claiming our many selves, or to setting our many selves free. --Chinelo Okparanta, author of Under The Udala Trees With this stunning debut, Akwaeke Emezi has blessed us with nothing less than a masterpiece. Freshwater is a journey of loss and reconciliation, home and heartbreak, and ultimately a survivor's guide to harmonizing spirit and flesh. Quite simply a gorgeous, elegant, and brutal work of truthtelling. To repeat: A masterpiece. --Daniel Jose Older, New York Times bestselling author of The Shadowshaper Cypher series Wow. The net effect is a feeling of being peeled open, and quickly finding that skinless place to be normal. More than any novel I can remember, it feels utterly present to the place we are in the world. --Binyavanga Wainaina, author of One Day I Will Write About This Place Akwaeke Emezi is a major, exhilarating talent. --NoViolet Bulawayo, Booker-shortlisted author of We Need New Names What if we were not one person, but three in one body--created by careless gods who forgot to 'close the gate'? Akwaeke Emezi's novel, Freshwater, paints a fiercely unique, unforgettable story of identity, mental health and the world beyond ours. This impressive debut is lyrical and well-told. --Tananarive Due, author of Ghost Summer A clarion call to those of us who find that our minds are more haunted and complex than that of the status quo. In exquisite, unearthly prose, Akwaeke Emezi renders the ordinary strange and the strange, ordinary--making Freshwater the most stunning debut novel I've read in years. An unforgettable literary experience. --Esme Weijun Wang, author of The Border of Paradise Freshwater is one of those dazzling novels that defies these kinds of descriptions. We can gesture to the story--set in Nigeria and America, told by all the selves of its Tamil/Igbo protagonist--but such synthesis fails to convey the magic that awaits its reader. At once fiction and memoir, potent in its spiritual richness and sexual frankness, the text seems not to have been written by but channeled through its brilliant author. This may be Emezi's debut novel but she is an old--an ancient--storyteller: thrillingly at home in the tradition of griots, poets, seers and seekers. --Taiye Selasi, author of Ghana Must Go Advance Praise for Freshwater In her mind-blowing debut, Emezi weaves traditional Igbo myth that turns the well-worn narrative of mental illness on its head, and in doing so she has ensured a place on the literary-fiction landscape as a writer to watch . . . Emezi's brilliance lies not just in her expert handling of the conflicting voices in Ada's head but in delivering an entirely different perspective on just what it means to go slowly mad. Complex and dark, this novel will simultaneously challenge and reward lovers of literary fiction. A must-read. --Booklist (starred review) [A] spiritually lush and tough yet lyrical debut . . . A gorgeous, unsettling look into the human psyche, richly conceived yet accessible to all. --Library Journal (starred review) In Emezi's remarkable debut novel, Freshwater, we enter the lives of our protagonist, starting in Nigeria and ending in the United States. Every page is imbued with radiant prose, and a chorus of poetic voices. With a plot as alive and urgent as it is relatable, Freshwater is also solidly its own, brims with its unique preoccupations. Never before have I read a novel like it--one that speaks to the unification and separation of bodies and souls, the powers or lack thereof of gods and humans, and the long and arduous journey to claiming our many selves, or to setting our many selves free. --Chinelo Okparanta, author of Under The Udala Trees Freshwater is one of those dazzling novels that defies these kinds of descriptions. We can gesture to the story--set in Nigeria and America, told by all the selves of its Tamil/Igbo protagonist--but such synthesis fails to convey the magic that awaits its reader. At once fiction and memoir, potent in its spiritual richness and sexual frankness, the text seems not to have been written by but channeled through its brilliant author. This may be Emezi's debut novel but she is an old--an ancient--storyteller: thrillingly at home in the tradition of griots, poets, seers and seekers. --Taiye Selasi, author of Ghana Must Go With this stunning debut, Akwaeke Emezi has blessed us with nothing less than a masterpiece. Freshwater is a journey of loss and reconciliation, home and heartbreak, and ultimately a survivor's guide to harmonizing spirit and flesh. Quite simply a gorgeous, elegant, and brutal work of truthtelling. To repeat: A masterpiece. --Daniel Jose Older, New York Times bestselling author of The Shadowshaper Cypher series Wow. The net effect is a feeling of being peeled open, and quickly finding that skinless place to be normal. More than any novel I can remember, it feels utterly present to the place we are in the world. --Binyavanga Wainaina, author of One Day I Will Write About This Place Akwaeke Emezi is a major, exhilarating talent. --NoViolet Bulawayo, Booker-shortlisted author of We Need New Names What if we were not one person, but three in one body--created by careless gods who forgot to 'close the gate'? Akwaeke Emezi's novel, Freshwater, paints a fiercely unique, unforgettable story of identity, mental health and the world beyond ours. This impressive debut is lyrical and well-told. --Tananarive Due, author of Ghost Summer A clarion call to those of us who find that our minds are more haunted and complex than that of the status quo. In exquisite, unearthly prose, Akwaeke Emezi renders the ordinary strange and the strange, ordinary--making Freshwater the most stunning debut novel I've read in years. An unforgettable literary experience. --Esme Weijun Wang, author of The Border of Paradise


Author Information

Akwaeke Emezi is an Igbo and Tamil writer and artist based in liminal spaces. Born and raised in Nigeria, they received their MPA from New York University and was awarded a 2015 Miles Morland Writing Scholarship. They won the 2017 Commonwealth Short Story Prize for Africa. Their work has been published in various literary magazines, including Granta. Freshwater is their debut novel.

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